Random Rants 92 - Not Enough Snerk

[EgonSpengler]

In the latest chapter in the ongoing post-apocalyptic dystopia that is public transit around here, the transit authority is going to fully shut down an entire line for an entire month, to do the maintenance & repair they should have been doing for the last... I dunno... 20 years?

Spoiler :

The line they're shutting down isn't the line that's experienced multiple collisions. Nor is it the line that's twice had unmanned trains go coasting down the track in recent months. It is the line that had a train literally catch on fire the other week, and the line that I use just about every day.

They say they'll be replacing the trains with shuttle buses during the 30-day shutdown. Just based on my own experience, I'd guess that a city bus carries roughly as many passengers as one train car. There are six cars to each train, normally running every 7-8 minutes during 'rush hour', and they're frequently packed. So they'll need to have 6 buses ready to go, every 7-8 minutes, just to make riding the temporary shuttles as enjoyable as the usual subway trains. And those buses are going to have to drive through city traffic on the surface streets, while making stops at all of the subway stations.

 

[Farm Boy]

Oofda. That should be interesting.

 

[Lohrenswald]

now more than one year I've been in a rut and only made things worse

 

[Kyriakos]

now more than one year I've been in a rut and only made things worse

Aren't you still in your (mid? late?) twenties?
Plenty of time to make things better.

 

[Hygro]

Lohrenswald, when you travel do you prefer to tour around and stay stimulated, or do you like to post up in one spot and chill?

 

[Lohrenswald]

Aren't you still in your (mid? late?) twenties?
Plenty of time to make things better.

inshallah

Lohrenswald, when you travel do you prefer to tour around and stay stimulated, or do you like to post up in one spot and chill?

This is a rare occurence, I haven't really travelled in several years, but like based on what I remember of my trips abroad, I think I'm more in the camp of touring around trying to see different things
This can be confounded by being in bad physical shape

It's also very different from how I usually live but that wasn't your question so you know

 

[The_J]

I made the error to think about a trip along the Cote d'Azur in the height of vacation season. If I want to do that, I'll either have to shell out 120€/night at one of the spots, or skip one location and be in the train 6h that day (2h to get there, 4h to get home). Not brillaint .

 

[Synobun]

I made the error to think about a trip along the Cote d'Azur in the height of vacation season. If I want to do that, I'll either have to shell out 120€/night at one of the spots, or skip one location and be in the train 6h that day (2h to get there, 4h to get home). Not brillaint .

Even a hostel is 120 euros a night?

 

[Kyriakos]

Even a hostel is 120 euros a night?

The J is part of the top 1%

Then again, unless one is a multi-millionaire, it must be very annoying to pay such amounts for a night's stay.

 

[The_J]

I wished I was .
I mean I could also, but there's no point if I'll only sleep there. I paid this before, but only when my GF at the time was with me. And given that I'll probably need to wait a couple of months before I get my unemployment money for the 2 months I'm out of work, this would seem wasteful.

Even a hostel is 120 euros a night?

If there are any, then they're fully booked (checked hostelworld and booking.com) .
Keep in mind that all the French go on holidays in August, the area itself is pretty much THE beach area, and we're talking about the geographic range between Saint Tropez, Cannes, Nice and Monaco. So definitely the higher price range.

 

[Ajidica]

No, Minnesota DMV. I will not donate $2 to support organ donation during license renewal because you are making me do this stupid Real ID crap to get on a domestic plane. What is this going to stop? The world's stupidest terrorist?
And to add insult to injury none of the DMV locations near me are open on the weekends, so I have to take PTO to stand in line for an unknown amount of time.
Nobody has ever had a good interaction with a DMV employee.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I wished I was .
I mean I could also, but there's no point if I'll only sleep there. I paid this before, but only when my GF at the time was with me. And given that I'll probably need to wait a couple of months before I get my unemployment money for the 2 months I'm out of work, this would seem wasteful.



If there are any, then they're fully booked (checked hostelworld and booking.com) .
Keep in mind that all the French go on holidays in August, the area itself is pretty much THE beach area, and we're talking about the geographic range between Saint Tropez, Cannes, Nice and Monaco. So definitely the higher price range.

120 Euros a night is not even particularly expensive for that area in August. I would expect at least 200 a night for a place near the water.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Once upon a time I used to have interesting, entertaining dreams, full of sound, color, tastes, and smells. I once dreamed I was walking in a local park, which is full of beautiful trees, green grass, a white wooden bridge over a beautiful creek. As soon as I crossed the bridge, I noticed tables set up, and a spread of the most wonderful-smelling Chinese food. The entire cast of Gilligan's Island was there, and the Professor gestured me over. He pointed to the food and a plate, and said, "Come on, dig in!"

Then I woke up.


It's been many years since I've had dreams so rich in sensory experience, and ages since I had dreams I could actually identify as dreams, never mind remember them.

Well, last night was a dream that was a bit of a crossover between Harry Potter, the current C.J. Cherryh novel I'm reading, and some generic science fiction adventure in which we had to do something NOW or something drastic would happen.

So I and the other person in the dream are getting ready to do this really important thing we had to do NOW, we're so close...

AND THEN THE <CENSORED> PHONE RANG!

Honestly, my phone just never shut up yesterday. Two of the people seemed terribly annoyed that they couldn't just text me... well, ex-cuuuuuse me for choosing to still use a landline! I was willing to give my email address, but that wasn't how they wanted to communicate.

I may resort to keeping it off the hook again until I want to use it.

 

[The_J]

120 Euros a night is not even particularly expensive for that area in August. I would expect at least 200 a night for a place near the water.

"Near" might be relative for some of the smaller towns (but definitely true for e.g. Cannes and Nice), but yeah, this could be even more expensive. Still too much for me. I had a look yesterday, the only available cheap accomodation at my first desired stay is in a dorm, which isn't brilliant during Covid times. I'll have another look today at the smaller towns with a train station, but I somehow don't have much hope.

 

[Birdjaguar]

AirBnB? Vrbo?

 

[The_J]

Didn't know the latter, but no luck there either.
I guess I'll suck it up and go one day just for Monaco, 4h there and 4h back (just to tick the checkbox).

 

[Birdjaguar]

Didn't know the latter, but no luck there either.
I guess I'll suck it up and go one day just for Monaco, 4h there and 4h back (just to tick the checkbox).

Vrbo is just an Air BnB knock off. I think Travelocity owns it.

 

[Tee Kay]

Trying to get a cleaner to my sister's house (an hour's drive away; she has moved interstate)

We called a local (local to area, not local to us) company yesterday. "Yes I can do it the day after tomorrow, I'll confirm with my team and call you back with a time in an hour"

A day passed. No word from the company. Called again today. "Yes it's for tomorrow right? It will be first thing in the morning. Let me just confirm with my team and call you back."

Radio silence for another half day. Texted asking for confirmation. Still nothing. Called a third time. "Yes we've got your text, let me confirm with my team and call you back in ten minutes." I threatened to go find a different cleaner if he didn't call me back. He didn't call me back.

Called a fourth time and cancelled the whole thing.

We were willing to go with this mob because they were recommended even though they charged more than other companies. Like seriously do you want our money or not?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I had a similar experience with a moving company. I had a whole 1-bedroom apartment's worth of stuff to move, but I guess they didn't consider it worth bothering about.

My last two moves have been an interesting experience with movers. It's been within the same apartment building, so my housekeeping helper and I moved most of the stuff (books, the small/medium bookshelves, clothes, kitchen/bathroom stuff, miscellaneous other things like the penguin/cat collection) ourselves but there are some things too large for us, so I needed movers. They'd start quoting prices at me about the truck, and I told them they would not need the truck to move anything anywhere - this was from one apartment to another in the same building, and it had an elevator.

It was still worth their time. Some of my stuff is quite large and heavy, not to mention my bed has to be disassembled, moved, and put back together in the right way. I also had them take whatever other things I just had no time or energy to do.

 

[The_J]

I had to physically mail my insurance provider with a certified letter to cancel the insurance of my apartment, because I'm moving. Now they want to have prove that I'm moving. Seriously o_O?